Of Love, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Oh!
by Zenna Crell
Summary: Nothing is ever as it seems, as Thami and Talie are quick to discover. When a trip to Egypt goes wrong, they end up in Ancient Egypt. They're separated. What to do? How can they get home? Why do so many people look familiar, but unfamiliar as well? Join Thami and Talie as they try to make sense of the world, once more, in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Atem/YamixOC, Bakura/Ryou/AkefiaxOC
1. Name on the Wall

Chapter One: Name on the Wall

The heat bore down on us in waves. Mini electric fans that misted were heavily coveted and used as often as un-frugally possible; which is to say, all the time! Much as the heat was despised and abhorred, there was no deterring us from our goal. We'd all paid an arm, an eye, some teeth, a leg, and in some cases, a rib, in order to go on this adventure to Egypt. Thankfully, so far, the trip was more than worth it.

Our guide was more than hospitable and knowledgeable – he was a freaking EXPERT on absolutely everything; whether it was ancient local cuisine or the reason why this pharaoh built that pyramid, he knew it and would grin widely with his in-depth response.

I had never thought that Egypt would be a pleasant place to visit, but was I ever glad that I had listened to my best friend, Talie! To my previous thinking, Egypt was too hot, too sandy, too dirty, and too crazy for me to feel comfortable visiting – EVER! But I was finding, little by little, that mine was indeed a ridiculous misconception.

The highlight of our schedule that day was visiting the former tomb (it had been raided by robbers long before it was found) of a very old, time-forgotten pharaoh, which had only recently been opened to the public. Naturally, there were certain limits and rules by which we were to abide, but when was the last time Talie and I ever completely followed the rules, no questions asked? Never. That's why, despite the obvious warning sign saying "Do Not Enter" in plain English (for stupid tourists and people like us, I suppose), Talie and I snuck away from the herd of our schoolmates, hopping over the Hollywood-style red retaining ropes with no regrets.

Grinning from ear to ear at each other in our shared guiltiness, Talie and I approached the surprisingly well-lit, spacious back room, searching it immediately for any interesting artifacts or even a stone tablet! Talie instantly found the jackpot with two matching sets of bangles and anklets hidden in the far corner.

We figured that they'd been overlooked by some archeologists, but we weren't going to take them! That would've been stealing! What we DID do was put them on. The ones that she handed me were gold inlaid with emeralds with tiny, bell-like objects on the anklet. My favorite, next to diamonds, that is. Talie's were a silver-gold mixture set with large, precious lapis-lazuli stones.

Giggling, Talie spun into the center of the room, bowing dramatically. "I feel like such a girl!" she snorted playfully.

I beamed, "I feel like a freaking belly-dancer! Listen!"

With each graceful, smooth step I took, the bell-like objects clinked together to produce a beautiful chime. Talie agreed that they did suit me well. Standing next to her in the center, very pleased with our find, we searched with our eyes for a spot we could stick these (no doubt) priceless jewelry where they could easily be found by someone who knew this room wasn't a waste of space, but wouldn't be picked up by someone with blacker hearts than ours who weren't at all squeamish about thievery.

UGH, thieves! I couldn't stand the THOUGHT of them! It was a vilely stupid and insensibly moronic thing to me for someone to do something as morally wrong as stealing – especially objects that should be on display as treasures in museums.

Finally, we decided on the little nook Talie had originally found the things in. As I set mine lovingly down, I noticed something odd on the wall behind them. Hieroglyphs, no larger than the tip of my pinky (which is really saying something because my hands are small), were painted discreetly yet noticeably there. And if I wasn't mistaken, they were carved before being painted!

Talie brushed my shoulder impatiently as she tossed hers down, telling me to hurry up or Zahlink, our tour guide, would notice our absence and send out search parties before we could catch up.

"Hold on a minute. I want to feel this, real quick," I shrugged, completely captivated by the symbols before me.

"Are you gonna do your weird voo-doo thing and 'read' the glyphs with your fingers, again?" Talie whined with a sigh.

She was referring to a special ability I possess. If a language, any language, is carved into something (smooth preferably), I can close my eyes, feel it carefully with my fingers, and give its literal translation into English. Now if it were English itself, I could read an entire book just by brushing the ink-shapes on the page with my fingers (kinda like Braille, but not), my eyes closed and with no prior affiliation with the book in question.

"Yep, I am. I'll be real quick, promise!"

"Fine…" she conceded, sitting down on the floor with an air of finalty.

Closing my eyes, measuring the rhythms of both our breathing and slowly synchronizing them, and also internally calculating my steady-as-ever heartbeat, I slowly, painstakingly ran my fingers over and into the ridges of the carvings. My head tilted to my right as I concentrated while I started mouthing the words that evanesced into my mind.

"What's it say, Thami?"

I smiled. Always curious, my Talie.

_"__Woe… woe unto they who dare remove these mine treasures till I come for them… After the year – "_

I gasped, my eyes flaring open. I scrambled away in a fluster, wringing my hands and feeling due fear.

"What is it, Thami?!" Talie was at my side in an instant.

Stuttering madly, incomprehensively, I tried to explain the impossible reason for my panic. "M-m-my n-n-n-n-na-name! It said my name, Ta! My FULL name!"

She pulled me into a comforting hug and held me, trying to calm me. Sadly, it wasn't really working.

"Shhh… It's okay, Tham. Just take a deep breath in – and out." I did as according to her count. "Now tell me everything it said, exactly," Talie commanded, pulling me further away from the corner protectively.

I took another deep breath and quoted, _"Woe… woe unto them who dare remove these mine treasures till I come for them… After the year two thousand AD, I, Thamigail Effera Zeylar, will claim these prizes. And until that time, I will punish those who dare disturb these bangles and anklets with a sore curse till they are returned as I will…"_

Talie was silent for a long time as I hiccupped my way back to near serenity. "And you got all that from those tiny carvings?" she questioned.

"Ta! Quit!" I whined with a gentle slap to her shoulder.

"What?" she chirped. "Anyway, how did you get to your name before you got to that part aloud?"

I gave my tall, blonde best friend a droll stare. "It's called multitasking. I was reading aloud to you while my fingers read ahead."

Talie took my hand and held it up to her face, staring at it observantly. Snorting, I tried to slip out of her slight grip, but she wasn't about to let me. She was entirely intent on examining my finger prints in detail.

"You know," she began, "you're far too smart for your own good."

Rolling my eyes emphatically, I saucily replied, "Tell me something I DON'T know… But Ta, what do you think this means? With my name and all…"

Whiffing her exhale heavily, Talie moaned pathetically, "I don't know, Thami! Since it's your entire freaking NAME, I suppose they rightfully belong to you. I have no idea how that happened, but I DO know that if we don't leave soon, Zahlink will have everyone up in arms by the time we get back."

I bit my lip. I had a decision to make, and it wasn't an easy one.

On the one hand, those things were absolutely gorgeous! On another, they were undoubtedly priceless. But on the other hand, my name marked clearly that I was the true owner of the beautiful decorations. And again on another hand, who was to say that Thamigail Effera Zeylar wasn't the super long name/title of whomever it was that put them there in the first place? But on the OTHER hand… Wait, where was I getting all these different hands from?!

I glanced over at the jewelry with irresistible longing, then turned back to Talie, my mind still unsettled but decided. "We're gonna take these and stick them someplace a guard, or something, will be able to see. We'll let them handle it," I decreed firmly.

By her expression, I knew Talie was thinking I was wasting a serendipitous opportunity, but she wasn't about to argue. She knew that I could be more stubborn than a pernicious stone that was to be pried from the surrounding, ridiculously firm earth, when I wanted to be. Shaking her head, Talie retrieved the jewelry from their cubby, no doubt thinking me the fool for giving away what could've been **_the rest _**of my college tuition.

She handed over the emerald encrusted ones to me immediately, but kept the lapis-lazuli ones in her clenched fist. Inwardly, I shrugged. Talie could nearly be as stubborn as me, when SHE wanted to be! I'd make sure that they didn't suddenly make a "magical" reappearance in her pockets, later.

We approached the doorway on silent feet, praying that our absence had gone unnoticed and no one was suddenly watching the forbidden entrance for intruders…

We soon found out why it was forbidden.


	2. Aw, Snap!

**I'd just like to say that this isn't my first YGO fan fic, but it's the first I'll be posting here. If y'all ever have any questions, feel free to ask!**

**And because I'm a lazy bum, this will be the only time I'll do a disclaimer... I mean, come on! Why would the CREATORS of the series need to post their ideas on a fan fic site? Come on! They could literally go and make it HAPPEN. PFFT.**

**I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! nor any of it's affliates. I only own my ideas and OC's. :3**

* * *

Chapter Two: Aw, SNAP!

From the moment I crossed the thresh-hold of the doorway, the jewelry still clamped tightly in my hands, I experienced agonizing, excruciating pain coursing through my veins, starting at the foot that stepped over the imaginary line.

I closed my eyes as inky-black tendrils began to swallow me whole. I was on my knees, whimpering and moaning, as blind and deaf as a newborn puppy. I tried to reach out for Talie, to comfort her and receive it myself, but my hands repeatedly closed on empty air. With every single movement I made, the pain twisted further into my body, even to my soul. It grew to the point of where I thought the curse the other Thamigail had talked about was eternal damnation in Hell.

Just as that strangely icy yet burningly painful sensation reached its pinnacle, I felt the ground give way from under me. '_Oh well,' _I thought pessimistically optimistic, in a sense. '_At least I'll die knowing the torment of true pain: the loneliness of an unknown place as you die slowly, not knowing what's truly going on…'_

But the impact I'd expected didn't come. Instead, I found I could open my eyes and see exactly what I was falling into. I always regretted the fact that I'd been curious enough to open my eyes, thereafter.

What I saw yawning beneath me was an endless, dark and dismal abyss, gathered into a great swirling vortex. There was absolutely no way I could do anything to stop myself, so I figured I may as well enjoy the ride!

When I finally awoke, I found myself staring up at a black-faced sky with tiny pinpricks showing through by the millions! I'd never seen so many stars!

Then, like a sudden clap of thunder, I recalled EVERYTHING that occurred before I passed out. The jewelry, the writing, Talie… TALIE!

I sat straight up, searching my surroundings desperately for that achingly familiar blonde head, or perhaps even the leather vest she had refused to remove from her person despite my nagging and the simply unnatural heat…

All I found were dunes. Dunes of sand, sand, and more sand. Vaguely, I wondered where the building, the tomb we had been visiting, had gone, but my thinking was becoming muddy, sporadic. I couldn't keep my thoughts straight, much to my inner alarm, and my body was shutting down. Before long, I was drooping back into the sand, somehow believing that it was softer than the plushest bed known to man.

I registered, finally, the strange, alien, miniscule dart in my shoulder. It was entirely numb in that area.

As shadows both real and surreal crept in silently through my muddled mind, the last thing I recognized was the emptiness of my hands… Though my bag of convinces was still strapped comfortably across my shoulder, the bangles and anklets Talie had found were gone.

It was hot: burning, broiling, flesh-cookingly hot. I could feel the heat wrapping around me in a thick, inescapable blanket, smothering me in its depths. Oddly, I was only sweltering, not burning, which was surprising, considering my extremely pale and fair skin.

I'd been careful thus far in our escapade to Egypt to keep covered or stay in a shaded area, so I couldn't process why on Earth I wasn't frying like bacon on a griddle on the freaking sun! The reason finally struck me as I realized something very important: I was being moved.

I cracked my eyes open a slit, expecting to be immediately blinded, but found myself staring at a khaki tan canvas tarp sprawling in the air high above my head. I couldn't even BEGIN to guess what was going on, I was so tired still.

I closed my eyes and listened. The sounds of a caravan met my ears conversationally; the only reason for my knowing this being that we, Talie and I and the rest of our other selected college classmates, had formed our own sort of caravan in order to approach the tomb.

It had been impossible to drive there, even on a full tank of gas, and still expect to be able to reach civilization again without actually bringing extra cans of gas along. Even in Egypt, gas prices were soaring! So, we opted on a cheaper method of travel: camel renting. Therefore, I recognized the sounds (and smells) of camels while also catching the faint whiney of a horse in the distance, and was able to identify myself as riding in the wagon of a caravan.

But who had been my saviors?

My body felt weighted, as if while I was sleeping someone had replaced most of my limbs with granite. As it were, I barely managed to roll onto my side to breathe easier before I ran out of energy. I groaned pitifully, bemoaning the fact that I could barely move.

A tan face swung into my view from around the canvas entrance flap of the wagon. It grinned widely at my blinking eyes and disappeared again. I heard a higher pitched voice, too low for a girl but higher than most men (which led me to believe that it had been a younger boy's face I'd seen), chirping something eagerly to someone else in rapid Egyptian.

Mentally, I repeated my earlier groan. I didn't speak or understand Egyptian except for the carvings. That's why Talie and I had stuck so close to the tour guide whenever we entered the cities. And speaking of Talie, where was she?

With particular effort, I raised my head to look around the box-shaped wagon more clearly. It was completely empty except for me. My mind was still too cluttered to try and conceptualize where in all of Egypt she was if she wasn't nearby, so I decided on something a little more immediate.

How was I supposed to communicate with these people? How was I to explain where I'd come from and that I needed to get back? Hand gestures, I knew, would only get me so far. If worse came to worst, they could always ship me over to the American Embassy, though I'd most likely never hear the end of it when I got back home in California. Undoubtedly, Talie would rant about it for days…

Slowly, I was able to inch myself into a drooped sitting position, my elbows resting on my thighs for support. Only then did I realize that my bag was gone. Stupefied, I looked wildly around myself, only to find it sitting benignly in the far left corner facing the tarp's opening. I found that if I used my toes (which were still encased in my white, light-weight tennis shoes), I could slip my foot just under the strap and pull it towards me.

I set it with a plop on my lap, but couldn't find the energy to search through it. It wasn't as if I had anything I could use to talk to these people anyways.

The young boy popped his head around the flap once more, his eyes open wide at my physical control. He ducked away again before I could do much more than open my mouth, though I had no clue what I was going to say.

I sighed pessimistically; it was going to be a LONG day.

Unbeknownst to me, Talie laid fast asleep on a soft, long cushion of feather down and tightly woven Egyptian cotton. She awoke with the sun, bewildered beyond relief at the change in her surroundings. Stretching out with a grunt, she slowly sat up to examine the room in which she occupied.

It was JUST a hair bigger than the living room of the apartment, and twenty times more luxurious! Multihued curtains and rugs decorated the room lavishly, tastefully while her own little bed roll blended nicely with the plush carpet. She located a balcony directly across from the door and decided to check her location more thoroughly by searching the outside view.

Talie stood up slowly, measuring carefully the amount of effort it cost her to do so. Luckily, she wasn't in any pain, nor did it require any extra coaxing to order her muscles to obey. (That lucky little… EHEM!)

Hesitantly yet determinedly, Talie approached the balcony with new eyes. Outside was a haven of solace in the desolate deserts of Egypt. Majestic palms hung lazily all around the garden; myriads upon myriads of exotic flowers bloomed and generated a strong presence of extravagance. An odd sort of vine clamored up the wall, in, out and all around her balcony. The two differently colored (though same species) flowers blossomed on those vines. Curious, Talie bent closer to examine the neon drops of light. The two were on either sides of the balcony, but met together in the middle. One was cerulean blue with a sunshine yellow throat, brushes of dark grey providing a certain surreal juxtaposition between the one flower and its cousin. The other was red with a white throat, blushes of gold of the petal rims giving it a sort of mystic beauty. To her left were the blue buds while the red were entirely on her right.

Not really paying attention to her actions, Talie stepped forward and stroked the red one that crossed the line with the blue, locked in the shadowy embrace of its cousin.

"Thami," she whispered to no one.

To her unawares, a smoky gray cat with black stripes slipped into her room much like the shadows by which it hid so well. She didn't notice it until it started rubbing it's face all over her ankles, mewing it's need for attention. Smiling with a small chuckle, Talie bent down and began stroking it's silky soft fur. "You know," Talie hummed tunelessly, "your kind was once worshipped as gods in this land… But of course, you already knew that!"

She finally sat, her legs crossed in the lotus pose, and the cat crawled into her lap for further lovin's. Talie closed her eyes and thought explicitly about her situation as she continued petting the poor beast. She knew that she was undoubtedly in the home of someone very wealthy, and most likely powerful, but she had no clue as to WHO that might be. I was nowhere to be found, and she was more worried for me and my sake than for herself. After all, she had some certain fantastic abilities of her own she could rely upon…

A sudden voice speaking rapidly in Egyptian snapped Talie to attention, though she kept her physical surprise to a minimum so as not to startle the cat, she looked up to see just who it was that miraculously snuck up on her. Her gaze fell upon a striking, tall, slender Egyptian woman in a flattering white gown and elaborate gold headdress standing in the doorway of her room. Talie stared blankly at her and continued to stroke the cat. She didn't understand Egyptian any better than I did!

The woman took a challenging step forward, repeating the same she'd said in a louder, harsher tone. Sighing, Talie patted the cat on the side – which made it leave of its own accord – and stood up with her empty hands held at shoulder height to signify her surrender. "I don't understand what you're saying," she stated unceremoniously.

The elegant woman drew back, her expression quickly flitting over shock before settling on a resigned mask. She beckoned Talie forward, and made movements to show that Talie was to follow her. Ever the cautious one with strangers of any sort (even the ones who were only trying to help us), Talie frowned, her arms crossed over her chest while taking on a stubborn, determined stance that said very plainly '_I'm not budging.' _

Making some kind of exasperated noise, the woman _in_elegantly stomped her foot and repeated the same following motion. Talie patronized her (just for the heck of it, I might add) by merely raising a petulant eyebrow at her. Thoroughly frustrated by Talie's complete LACK of cooperation (though I can't say I blame her), the woman called out the open doorway, and two heavy set, very beefy guards (wearing only a sort of loincloth that stretched from just above the hip to about the knee) rushed into the room, pikes at the ready and pointing them clearly at my Talie!

Mildly annoyed, Talie dropped the attitude and obediently, if sullenly, followed the woman out of her room. Messing around and ticking off rich-and-or-important people wasn't going to get her any closer to finding me…

And speaking of myself, I still sat in the back of the covered cart, as bored as I could ever be. I fingered the gold chain around my neck before straying to the pendant that lay directly over my heart. I smiled fondly as I remembered how I got it…

_I had been homeschooled from the age of three to twelve. Subsequently, I was far above – beyond – my age level in academics, therefore allowing me to skip a couple grades when I officially entered the school system. When I turned twelve, my parents died in a freak accident that was still raw in my mind those four years later. I had few relatives, and the ones I did possess were strangers to me, so I was stuck with a life-changing decision. _

_Go live with Uncle So-and-so in Norway and continue life there, or get into a private school with dorms. I chose the latter. I was often ridiculed by the older students, all throughout high school, so I didn't have many friends. It was a relief when I met Talie as a fourteen-on- fifteen-year-old freshman in college. _

_She was in a similar predicament as I, at the time, and was the same age, AND was my roommate in the dorms! Needless to say, we became fast friends. On my fifteenth birthday, Talie bought two matching necklaces. She gave the one with the gold chain, gold and silver bird winged, green heart pendant to me; Talie kept the silver chained, black fairy-winged and blue heart pendant necklace for herself, sealing our bond more strongly as sisters in mind and soul if not in blood…_

I sighed tenderly. Being away from Talie for long periods of time always put an anxious strain on my mind, and being separated in a country where the locals and I couldn't communicate without an interpreter between us didn't help.

I decidedly crawled over to the flap of the canvas and peeked out and around, though my muscles complained at me profusely. I had to blink several times before my eyes adjusted, but what I saw astounded all breath out of me.

What seemed to be an entire VILLAGE worth of people (two to three hundred strong) lined the caravan as over an entire _mile _long! And that was just from what I saw behind the wagon! But what interested me most at that moment was the guard-like person sitting commandingly from atop a chestnut horse that walked nonchalantly beside my vehicle.

I must've made some sort of notable noise because he twisted in his saddleto look at me. He was a bronze tan like most Egyptians and was obviously accustomed to heavy labor. The scowl he wore on his handsome face softened when he saw me, but it didn't stop the suspicion that clouded his deep amber eyes. I thought that it was a good thing that he didn't trust me right away. It meant that he had good sense! If I'd hired a guard, I'd have wanted them to see everything as a potential threat, even after a really elaborate explanation from myself as to WHY someone/thing was trustworthy.

I smiled tentatively, not really know WHAT, exactly, I should do. Suddenly, that expression on his noble face transformed into pity, and then he returned his normal forward-facing position. Pity? Why pity, of all emotions? He could've been angry that I was taking up space in the canvassed wagon. He could've been glad to see that I was awake. He could've been exasperated I hadn't woken sooner. Heck! He could've been shocked to see that I was even alive! But pity?

Sighing, I retreated back into the spot in which I'd awoken in the first place, and laid back down. I sought for ANY source of entertainment that didn't leave me feeling homesick or missing Talie (which immediately opted out my bag and its "treasures"), but couldn't find any except for searching for patterns in the folded lines of the illuminated tarp. I found three sheep spread haphazardly, a dog chasing its tail, a goat grazing on SOMETHING, some stags leaping over yet another something, and even something that vaguely resembled a dragon in flight before I shut down my brain all together.

I didn't think, feel, see, or hear much of anything for the next hour or so. I don't remember much from that time, so I suppose I actually fell asleep. When I came to an awareness of myself and my surroundings, the sun was getting on high noon and the wagon slid to a complete stop. Curious, I sat up, rubbed the last dregs of sleep from my face, and poked my head out the flap again. Lo' and behold, who should I find standing there, slack-jawed in wonder and gazing up at me in awe? Why, none other than the little boy I'd glimpsed when I first awoke in the wagon!

At least, I thought it was the same one. No, it was. Though worn out by what MUST have been a long morning's work, he still had the same bright smile and innocent curiosity about his person when he saw that I was neither angry, nor about to reproach him. I returned his smile fondly with one of my own as I recalled a similar boy I used to babysit for extra money back in America. Suddenly excited by this small gesture of kindness, he came closer to me and began jabbering away in Egyptian (oh, how I wished I knew what he was saying!), jumping up and down in his haste to speak.

Startled, I withdrew somewhat and watched him closely. Noticing this, he stopped himself and gave me a once-over, his expression concerned. He then spoke more softly and slowly, as if he were trying to soothe a wounded animal. I appreciated that and moved closer again. My fingers gripped the lip of the wagon lightly, only to support myself and I leaned, but the young boy patted them awkwardly as he tried to "comfort" me.

Suddenly, I had this overwhelming, indescribable sense of danger, and the need to protect this considerate boy. I couldn't have begun to explain, at the time, but that strange, skin-crawling sensation ran down my spine starting at my neck – and I knew that the boy would somehow be safer with me. So, I yanked him into the wagon beside me, slapping my hand over his mouth and closing my eyes to listen for the danger…

"What are you doing?! If you wanna hurt me, I'll scream!"

The feeling of danger was beginning to fade, but I had a whole new situation that I still didn't understand shoved into my hands.


End file.
